28 Years Later star Ralph Fiennes has praised Cillian Murphy ahead of the Irish actor’s return to the post-apocalyptic movie franchise.
Murphy appeared in the first film in the hit series in 2002 playing Jim, a bicycle courier who emerges from a coma to find that the accidental release of a highly contagious, rage-inducing virus has caused the collapse of society.
Watch: Alan Corr chat to Ralph Fiennes and Chi Lewis Parry
There has since been two sequels in the Danny Boyle/Alex Garland creation, 2007’s 28 Days Later and 2024’s 28 Years Later, and now Murphy has returned for the latest instalment, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which is in cinemas from today.
The new film sees Fiennes, who has previously starred as Voldemort in the Harry Potter franchise, Schindler’s List and Conclave, reprise his role as Kelson, a mysterious doctor who has managed to escape the virus and is now working on a cure.
Jack O’Connell (centre0 as Jimmy
There is a lot going on in the new movie but the big talking point is the return of Oscar-winner Murphy, who has come a long way since the first 28 Days movie nearly a quarter of a century ago.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, 63-year-old Fiennes said, “Cillian’s amazing. He is one of the great screen actors around today. I am a huge admirer and fan of his and I would love the opportunity to work with him.”
Details of Murphy’s return are under wraps but in an interview with RTÉ Entertainment last year, director Danny Boyle said, “It’s all linked to Cillian and with his agreement, we didn’t connect directly to that first film from 2002.”
Samson and Kelson
Boyle added, “Cillian’s character, Jim, will reappear and in fact he will appear at the end of The Bone Temple to take us into the fifth film and that will be his film, really. 28 years have passed and something is the same and something is very different. That’s all I can tell you . . . “
In last year’s 28 Years Later, we were introduced to a whole new cast, including Alfie Williams as Spike, a teenage boy who escapes his island home off the coast of Northern England to explore the mainland, which is still infested with zombies.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which was directed by Nia Dacosta, delves even deeper into the mythic and ritualistic world where the infected have evolved since their initial contamination and begun producing a super strength breed called Alphas.
Meanwhile, Spike is drawn deeper into the cruel orbit of the Jimmys, the feral gang of occultists led by Jimmy (Jack O’Connell) and Kelson begins to form a bond with the Alpha, Samson, who is played by former MMA fighter Chi Lewis Parry.
Speaking about Kelson and Samson’s relationship, Fiennes says, “At the beginning of the film, Kelson’s interest and curiosity about Samson is as a doctor and a scientist – does this man have the capacity to communicate and have empathy, any connecting communication ability with me. Samson is an infected Alpha male.
“Then we find out, yes he can communicate and on top of that, he starts to find a friendship in this besieged county that is Britain, which is still gripped by this terrible pandemic.”
Fiennes added, “People are engorged with rage and suddenly across the divide, between an uninfected and an infected man, you would think there is no possibility but what is happening is thar something inside Samson’s brain is awoken and there is a bonding.”